Hi all,Question for you: Are Douglas aircraft company and McDonnell Douglas aircraft company related in any way? Why the similar names? And if there is no relationship why are the flight decks on the DC9 and the MD80 series almost identical?Thanks

It started out as Douglas, then Mcdonnell Douglas, now Boeing..same company / aircraft.. eg Boeing 717 series,= derivative of MD80, = derivative of DC-9.

Yes Douglas was a company on it own for many years with a LONNGG history of great aircraft. The DC-3 was one of the first aircraft to revolutionize the passenger transport business. All A/C with DC in front are Douglas aircraft. Later McDonnell & Douglas merged and created many great airliners and military aircraft, Hence MD.Boeing bought out MD and has really gutted everything to do with the name McDonnell Douglas. The MD-11 is no longer in production, and the only reason they kept the MD-95 a.k.a. 717 was because it was too far in development...A shame really.Anyone with corrections or more to add pls do, it's nice to have discussions like this :)Oh and to add, the MD-80 was just a strech DC-9, just the two companies merged at the time and all AC from then on had the MD designation.

That is correct. . .and actually an MD-80 series is just an DC-9-80. So if DC kept with the traditional naming, an MD-87 would be a DC-9-87 and such. They're great twinjets. . .but unfortunately the MD-11 was pushed out of the picture with the introduction of the 777. Afterall, why use 3 engines (= more maintenance) when you can do the same job with 2 engines, and more efficiently. It's a bummer becaue the MD-11's were sure cool looing, winglets and all.-drew